Cigar band



u 6a A /5 Q /3 May 30, 1944. v A, FlcHMAN 2,350,222

CIGAR BAND Filed June 13, 1942 IN V EN TOR.

Patented May 30, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE j,

CIGAR. BAND Abraham Fichman, Neponsit, N'. Y. I Application June 13, 1942, serial No. 446,979

3 Claims.

The present invention is directed to the production of bands for cigars and the like, more particularly to a method of making the same and to the resulting product. V It has been customary to make cigar bands by providing relatively large sheets of paper and printing individual cigar bands thereon in rows and containing a series of such rows across the sheet. It was also customary to varnish the printed sideof the sheets and to apply a layer of adhesive or gum on the back thereof. It was necessary after the varnishing operation to heat or bake the same and a similar operation was necessary after the gurnming operation, in order to dry the same and thus facilitate quantity production. Thereafter, the sheets were arranged in lifts of 50, then cut into strips, the bands then die-cut, and later placed in a banding machine for application to cigars.

Bands made in accordance with the prior practice suffered from a number of disadvantages. For instance, in the varnishing and gumming operations it was necessary 'either to use two machines, one for each operation, or to rearrange a single machine" each time it was necessary to change from Varnishing to gumming or vice versa. This introduced a considerable, unnecessary eX- pense as two operations were required with the additional cost of handling sheets, more space, more waste andspoilage in the handling of the sheets, and it necessitated two inspections.

Another difculty inherent in prior practice is the factrthat the sheets after the gumming and drying operations became curled and wrinkled by reason of the setting of the gum. Such wrinkled sheets were dicult to cut into individual cigar bands, and therefore an additional operation became necessary in order to flatten the sheets by a breaking down of the layer of adhesive.

The gumming of the reverse side of the cigar bands along one end thereof gave a greater thickness to said area than the remainder of the cigar bands. Therefore, in the stacking operation in the banding machine the stack became uneven and tilted. This often caused interference with the functioning of the banding machine in that at times more than one band was removed by the mechanism for removing the band from the stack, and at times the mechanism failed to take up a band and, therefore, a cigar often went through the banding machine without being banded. 1f the gum was not accurately applied to the sheets, or if the band was not properly applied to the cigar, the gum would adhere to the tobacco wrapper of the cigar, so that the wrapper was broken when the band was removed.

In such banding machine there is a fabric tape which carries watertothe reverse side of the band to wet the gum or adhesive. After operating the same for a number of hours, the tape accumulated a sufficient amount of the gum so that it became clogged and did not properly bring water to meisten the cigar bands. l Therefore, it was necessary to `change such tapes usually once a day eitherl by washing them or replacing with new ones. f

The present invention is intended and adapted to overcome the difiiculties and disadvantages inherent in prior methods and to provide a method of making cigar bands and obtaining a resultant product which will materially decrease the number of operations necessary in the making thereof, which will allow more efficient use of the cigar bands in application thereof to cigars, and which will substantially reduce the cost thereof, while at the same time producing a superior product.

In practicing the present invention, I provide a sheet of paper, as usual, on which the rows of cigar bands are suitably printed. After the printing and embossing operations, the printed surface is varnished in a suitable machine, with the ex.l ception of a strip or area along one of the lateral edges of each of the rows of bands, which is allowed to remain free from varnish. While the varnish is still wet and in the machine, the sheet is subjected to a gumming operation over the unvarnished area only. Then the sheet is dried to simultaneouslyharden both the varnish and the gum in a single operation.

The varnish used in the present invention may be a spirit varnish made from a natural varnish resin, such as shellac, dammar, and the like, dissolved in alcohol or other suitable organic solvent. The gum used in the present invention may be a water-soluble adhesive which dries to a nonadhesive layer and may thereafter be rendered adhesive once more by wetting with water.

In the accompanying drawing, constituting a part hereof, and in which Alike reference characters indicate like parts,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary. elevational view of a strip of cigar bands made in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional View thereof taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a Adiagrammatic view showing` the processing of a sheet of paper to obtain the product of the present invention.

In Fig. 1, the numeral l designates a strip of cigar bands, but in'actual practice the sheet is of considerable width and carries a plurality of rows of such bands. The sheet is printed as shown at 2 over substantially the entire face of the bands, with the exception that the area 3 at one of the lateral edges of each row of bands is preferably free from printing. Numeral 4 indicates the marginal edges of the individual bands. A layer of varnish 5 is placed over the area of the strip l, between the parallel lines 6 and 1. The varnish layer extends up to the line 6. A

tween parallel lines 9 and I0 so that the layers 5 and 8 are separated by a narrow space II which is free from both varnish and gum. Between the individual cigar bands are areas I2, which are cut away in the stamping or cutting of the individual cigar bands.

Both of the layers 5 and 8 are applied in the liquid state, the varnish layer being in solution in a solvent and the gum layer being in solution, usually in water. The thickness of the layers 5 and 8, as shown in Fig. 2, are approximately equal. This is of considerable importance in the present invention. It is also important that the layers cover substantially the entire area of the completed cigar bands.

The method of formation of cigar bands in accordance with the present invention is shown by the diagrammatic view of Fig. 3. A relatively Wide sheet of printed paper may be provided. The sheet I is fed to cylinder I3 where it rst comes into contact with a solution of the varnish resin I4, which is applied over the desired areas by means of roller I5. As the sheet continues in its travel, it comes in contact with the solution of gum I6 which is applied by roller Il to the desired areas. The sheet is then introduced into the drying oven I8, through inlet opening I9, being supported by suitable tapes or rollers 2U, and after drying being removed through exit opening 2 I. In the drying operation a current of heated air held at a constant temperature is caused to flow over the sheet I, thereby removing the moisture and solvent therefrom in a single operation, and the completed sheet coming out of the drying oven is perfectly dried. Thereafter, it is cut up into individual cigar bands.

One of the important advantages of the present invention is that after the drying operation, there is no tendency of the sheet to wrinkle or bulge or curl. It lays perfectly at and oiers no difficulties whatsoever in the cutting operations. 'I'he reasons why the product of the present invention has no. tendency to curl or wrinkle is not entirely clear, although it is my opinion that in the prior methods when adhesive was applied to the reverse side, which was the uncoated side, of the sheet, the drying operation caused contraction of the adhesive, placing a tension upon certain portions of the sheet. Applicant considers that in his invention the tendency of the adhesive to shrink is in the opposite direction to the tendency produced by the printing, and as the result the two neutralize each other and the sheet lays perfectly flat. This eliminates the necessity of breaking down the gum according to prior practice. f

Because the thickness of the finished cigar bands is the same from end to end and from side to side, they stack evenly in the banding machine and lay at in the hopper thereof.

vals, thus considerably increasing the eciency of the banding machine and rendering the operation thereof a much simpler matter.

In the cigar banding machine the moistening tapes no longer come in contact with the adhesive, since the moistening is accomplished on the reverse side where, according -to the present invention, there is no adhesive. It lmay be-necesbility of any layer of adhesive 8 is placed over the area 3 besary to increase the amount of moisture applied to the reverse side of the band, but this is no disadvantage, particularly in that the present invention has entirely eliminated the necessity for changing tapes at frequent intervals and thus has considerably reduced` the cost of banding cigars.

The present invention accomplishes the varnishing and gu ming of the bands in a single operation.

step. There is also an increased eiiciency in the cutting, in that because the sheets lay iiatter in the cutting machine, there is no possiwrinkled surface causing jamming or otherwise interfering with the cutting operation, the cutting is more accurate, the spoilage per of the cigar regardless of Whether the gum or the band are not accurately applied.

What I claim is:

gum, the ends of united without the 3. A cigar band 

